17. Mai: Brekken Family Edition

Gratulerer med dagen! Hip hip hurra for 17. Mai! We celebrated Norway’s Constitution Day, the biggest national holiday of the year! Here are some pictures from our day. It is set up as a gallery, so click the first picture in a larger format and you can click through to see them all.

The sun was up at 4:05am, Anders’ alarm went off at 5:00am. He had to get ready to meet the band at 6:45am for the first march of the day through the neighborhood, which sounds like a fine way to wake up. Then the band went to the school to eat a 2nd breakfast together. Nora got dressed up and went to the school at 8:20. Then they lined all of the kids up outside and marched them to the waiting buses to take them downtown. Ted and I were on our way to the city buses and were lucky to see their short parade from the school to the buses.

Ted and I took the city bus downtown to see the kids in the big parade–the buses were jam packed with everyone all dressed up. We found a spot near the beginning of the parade to see the kids–their school was number 40 out of over 50 schools in the parade. After they came by, we hustled through the crowds over to another parade viewing spot at the end of the route to see them again and meet at the pick-up spot.

We went for lunch at a konditori, a kind of old fashion cafeteria-style restaurant. Then we stopped for ice cream, because we hear that there is one rule on 17. mai: parents cannot say no when kids ask for ice cream. We meandered through downtown to get on a jam-packed bus back home. Nora sat on my lap in one seat while another mom and girl sat in the seat next to us. We had a little time at home to take some pictures of all of us looking fine and rest a bit before the afternoon party at the school–more pictures of that in the next post!

Anders’ ipod says that he walked almost 21,000 steps, 7+ miles, and the rest of us weren’t too far behind that. But it was a nicely paced day, and he even had energy to play catch with Ted in the afternoon. More to come on the school’s festivities and the general scene in Trondheim!

Nora in the barnetoget, the children’s parade, as they leave the school to get on the buses to downtown.

The royal wave.

Parade watching

The trombonist.

A place to sit a bit!

Ted was talking picture with the fancy camera.

Steindal skolekorps

Anders was surprised to see us! He knew we would be watching somewhere but didn’t know where!

We got Nora’s attention during the big parade!

Meeting up after the parade.

Lunch at a konditori after the parade, very traditional!

The rule of 17. mai is that parents can’t say no when kids want ice cream.

We returned home on the bus after the parade and took the chance to get some pictures with the fancy camera.